Method and system for tracking

ABSTRACT

A system for tracking using electronic addresses is disclosed. The system stores an identification code, an electronic address, and a counter. The electronic address is made up of either single values or pairs of single values. A pair of single values for at least one of value of the counter is made up of a pseudonumber and a unique address value. The pseudonumber is able to be disentangled to produce a second pair of single values for a different value of the counter, thereby producing a tracking history.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This Non-Provisional patent application claims benefit of U.S.Provisional patent application No. 61/031,965, filed Feb. 27, 2008, andentitled “METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR TRACKING,” the disclosure of which isincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention is directed to a method and system for tracking itemsbased on a standardized electronic address. The item tracked may be aphysical item, including but not limited to a package, a file, ashipping container, a truck, a ship, an airplane, a person, or ananimal, or it may be electronic data, including but not limited tonetwork data packets; frames; or files, such as a digital music file, adigital movie file, or digital rights management (DRM) implementations.

2. Related Art

Many systems and methods exist for tracking items such as packages orshipping containers. These systems typically utilize a central databaseor a group of databases to track movements on a large scale. Thesesystems do not offer an ability to track individuals or items anddetermine all of the locations that they have visited without using amuch larger database to store information on the same. Moreover, inorder to relay information related to the tracked items or individuals,an input system (communication) to the database(s) could be extensiveand problematic, due to e.g., bandwidth considerations.

For example, if a shipment travels from its origin to a finaldestination, it likely was loaded on a vehicle, deposited in awarehouse, reloaded on a transport such as a ship, unloaded at a dock,placed in another warehouse, and finally placed on a vehicle to itsfinal destination. Accordingly, eight different locations may beinvolved, including point of origin and final destination. In variousscenarios, many more locations could easily be involved. A person couldconceivably visit hundreds of locations in a single day. Such detailedtracking may quickly overwhelm a standard, database-based trackingsystem and the system to acquire such information could be prohibitivelycomplex. If a large number of people (and/or items) are being tracked,the system could become overwhelmed, since scaling could become alimiting factor.

Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system for tracking thatis able to track an item across a large number of locations withoutgenerating unmanageable amounts of data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention meets the foregoing need and allows tracking across a verylarge number of locations using mathematical concepts to compress thetracking data, which results in a significant increase in the number oflocations that can be tracked and other advantages apparent from thediscussion herein.

Accordingly, in one aspect of the invention, a system for trackingstores identification code, an electronic address, and a counter. Theelectronic address includes single values or pairs of single values. Apair of single values for at least one value of the counter may includea pseudonumber and a unique address value. The pseudonumber may bedisentangled to produce a second pair of single values for a differentvalue of the counter.

A tracking device may include the system described above. A digitalrights management scheme may include the system described above. Theelectronic address may be selected from a group that includes anInternet protocol (IP) address, a media access control address (MAC),and a longitude-latitude coordinate.

According to another aspect of the invention, a method for trackingincludes incrementing a counter, storing a first address, pairing asecond address with the first address, and reversibly combining the twoaddresses to produce a pseudonumber.

The pseudonumber may additionally be paired with a third address. Theaddresses may be selected from a group that includes an Internetprotocol address, a media access control address, and alongitude-latitude coordinate. The tracking method may be used in atracking device or in a digital rights management scheme.

In yet another aspect, a method for tracking movement of a physical oran electronic (virtual) object is provided. The method includes a)storing in a memory associated with an object an address associated witha first location and a counter having an initial value, b) recognizing anext location and incrementing the counter and reversibly combining atleast a subset of the address of the first location with at least asubset of an address associated with the next location to produce anaggregated address in the memory such that the aggregated address isrecorded in a reversibly compressed format all addresses of everylocation, c) repeating step (b) for each next location and d) generatingan output based on the aggregated address to provide an identity ofevery location for tracking the movement of the object.

In still another aspect, a system for tracking movement of an object isprovided. The system includes a plurality of address components atdifferent locations, each address component configured to provide anaddress indicative of the respective different location, the respectivedifferent locations including at least an originating location and atleast one next location, an address reception component configured toreceive the address when the object is proximate one of the addresscomponents, a processing component configured to store in a memory areceived address associated with the originating location and to counteach different location, the processing component further configured torecognize at least one next location based on the received address andto reversibly combine at least a subset of the received addressassociated with the first location with at least a subset of the addressassociated with the at least one next location to produce an aggregatedaddress in the memory such that the aggregated address records in areversibly compressed format each received address, and a decompressingcomponent configured to generate an output by reversibly decompressingthe aggregated address to provide an address of at least one locationfor tracking the movement of the object.

Additional features, advantages, and embodiments of the invention may beset forth or apparent from consideration of the following detaileddescription, drawings, and claims. Moreover, it is to be understood thatboth the foregoing summary of the invention and the following detaileddescription are exemplary and intended to provide further explanationwithout limiting the scope of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention, are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the invention andtogether with the detailed description serve to explain the principlesof the invention. No attempt is made to show structural details of theinvention in more detail than may be necessary for a fundamentalunderstanding of the invention and the various ways in which it may bepracticed. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an example of a systemconstructed according to principles of the invention using a processaccording to principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an example of a process according to anembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example of a process according to anotherembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an embodiment showing another process of theinvention; and

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an embodiment showing steps of anotherprocess of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

It is understood that the invention is not limited to the particularmethodology, protocols, etc., described herein, as these may vary as theskilled artisan will recognize. It is also to be understood that theterminology used herein is used for the purpose of describing particularembodiments only, and is not intended to limit the scope of theinvention. It also to be noted that as used herein and in the appendedclaims, the singular forms “a,” “an,” and “the” include the pluralreference unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, forexample, a reference to “an address” is a reference to one or moreaddresses and equivalents thereof known to those skilled in the art.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used hereinhave the same meanings as commonly understood by one of ordinary skillin the art to which the invention pertains. The embodiments of theinvention and the various features and advantageous details thereof areexplained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments andexamples that are described and/or illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings and detailed in the following description. It should be notedthat the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawnto scale, and features of one embodiment may be employed with otherembodiments as the skilled artisan would recognize, even if notexplicitly stated herein. Descriptions of well-known components andprocessing techniques may be omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscurethe embodiments of the invention. The examples used herein are intendedmerely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the invention maybe practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practicethe embodiments of the invention. Accordingly, the examples andembodiments herein should not be construed as limiting the scope of theinvention, which is defined solely by the appended claims and applicablelaw. Moreover, it is noted that like reference numerals referencesimilar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

Essentially every addressable device connected to a network such as theInternet has a unique numerical address assigned to it, such as anInternet Protocol (IP) address. Under Internet Protocol version 4, an IPaddress comprises a 32-bit number, generally written for humanreadability as four decimal numbers, referred to as octets (or sometimesoctals), and separated by periods. Each octet has a value from 0 to 255.Not all locations or individuals have an IP address, but those that dohave an assigned IP address, may participate in a unique trackingability.

Similarly, media access control (MAC) addresses, which are uniquenumbers assigned to every network adapter or interface connecting to anetwork, may be used with the method and system described herein. Otheraddress schemes are contemplated and are within the scope of theinvention, including but not limited to Internet Protocol version 6(IPv6) addresses (a 128-bit based numbering scheme), global positioningsystem (GPS) coordinates (longitude and latitude), and other schemeswhereby the address format may be partitioned into physical or logicalsubsets of address fields. However, to simplify the description below,only the IP address embodiment will be discussed in detail.

Tracking the locations that an item may be achieved by knowing orrecognizing the various IP addresses assigned or associated with thelocations traversed. One way that this might be accomplished is to storethe tracking information in a database, which may have to be a verylarge database, depending on the application. In an application having alarge number of items to be tracked and/or a very large number ofpossible locations which might be traversed, the number of trackedlocation instances could be extremely large. Moreover, the number ofend-points in such a system that may be required to communicate trackinginformation of a physical item to the database could be extensive. Sothere are practical limitations (e.g., cost and support issues) to suchan approach.

However, to overcome these limitations, the method and system providedherein enables an “item” to carry or remember its own trackinginformation (e.g., stored on an RFID tag associated with the item),obviating the problems associated with using a central database (e.g.,communications and storage issues). Since the tracking memory isprovided on each item to be tracked, the memory for storing the trackinginformation could be limited (e.g., a RFID tag typically has limitedmemory capacity). The system and method of the invention include atechnique for efficiently recording the tracking information for theitem, which may be a form of lossless compression (“address compressionmethodology”), described in more detail below.

According to an embodiment of the invention, the tracking device maystore three pieces of information: an identification code (ID) assignedto an item, an address sequence (ADD SEQ) of the item, and a locationcounter (Z) for the item. The location counter may be a numberrepresenting the number of locations visited by the item. That is, thelocation counter Z may be incremented when arriving at or transiting atracked location. Thus, a counter value of zero (0) may correspond tothe origination location, a counter value of one (1) may indicate afirst location arrival or transit location, a counter value of two (2)may indicate that a second location had been reached or transited, etc.

For example, using simplified IP addresses for ease of explanation,consider a tracking device with an ID represented as ⊖ and anorigination point with an IP address of [1.2.3.4]. The device may storethe data in form of ID+ADD SEQ+Z, so in this example, the device maystore ⊖+[1.2.3.4]+0. If the device then moves to a location with an IPaddress of [5.6.7.8], the two IP addresses may be stored as the ADD SEQ.Accordingly, internal data for the device will now contain information:⊖+[(1,5).(2,6).(3,7).(4,8)]+1.

When the tracking device is moved to a second location, the two IPaddresses, i.e. the IP address associated with the first location andthe IP address associated with the second address, may be combined usingan algorithm that allows the IP addresses to be disentangled (ordecoded), which results in a pseudonumber represented as α. If the IPaddress for the second location is [9.10.11.12], then the internal datain the memory associated with the tracking device will be ⊖+[(α′,9).(α″,10). (α′″,11). (α″″,12)]+2. As the tracking device moves tosubsequent locations, the above process may be repeated, so that at thenth location, the stored tracking data would be ⊖+[(α′,X′). (α″,X″).(α″′,X″′). (α″″,X″″)]+n, where X represents a respective octet from anIP address for a current location of the tracking device. If the valueof α is constrained to values between 0 and 255 (e.g., similar to as theoctets of an IP address), then there may be 65,025 possible combinationsof the address sequence (α,X).

To reveal the IP addresses of all the locations visited, the device maysimply work backwards from the current value of the address sequence andthe location counter. For all addresses where the counter value Z isgreater than 2, each pair of octets may contain a pseudonumber followedby a unique address. By reversing the algorithm used to combine theoctets, an address sequence pair (α′,X′) at Z=(n−1) may be extractedfrom the pseudonumber α′ at Z=n. The tracking device (or other deviceperforming the extraction) can continue to decrement the locationcounter and step backwards through all values of the location counter toextract all of the IP addresses that the device has visited, down to thedevice's origination location.

In another embodiment, since each octet in an IP address might rangefrom “0” to “255,” each of the four unique combined numbers could haveup to 255 different combinations. The combined numbers could have a formas complicated as, for example:

-   -   [(123,199). (245,240). (0,9). (166,25). (99.122)]        To combine these numbers may be straight forward, however to        decode the numbers could be difficult without an algorithm. In        this embodiment, a symbol, such as, e.g., a letter from one of        many alphabets (e.g.; English, Greek, Cyrillic, etc.) may be        assigned to the combined numbers. For example, the following        assignment may be made:    -   A=(0,0), B=(1,0), C=(0,1), and so forth.

Given:

π^(n)=α₁α₂α₃β₁β₂β₃

Where α₁ α₂ α₃ would represent the prior position octet from “z−1”, andwould represent y₁ y₂ y₃ and the prior unique address from that octet at“z−1”. Similarly α₁′ α₂′ α₃′ would represent y₁′ y₂′ y₃′ and the priorunique address from that particular octet at “z−1” address and so on.

As an example, (φ₁ φ₂ φ₃, 242) could be represented by a letter such asψ′ which then with the counter can be disassembled. So, this algorithmwithin a scanner (or, a reader, or computer process) could easilydisassemble a particular address. For the combination of (φ₁ φ₂ φ₃,242), 65,025 unique symbols would be necessary.

Therefore, knowing the number of times a tracking device has moved (tonew locations), digits, or letters, disassembly of a compressed address,such as in the brackets above, is possible. The location sequence couldbe represented by:

-   -   ID+IP location sequence+counter

Or,

-   -   ID+ψ′+counter, where ψ′ is the sequence of IP addresses.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of an example of a systemconstructed according to the principles of the invention, generallydenoted by reference numeral 100. The item 105, such as a product, aperson or an article associated with a person, an animal, an article, adevice, or the like) is shown moving across a plurality of locations(e.g., an originating location, a first location, and a second location,Nth location). The functional block diagram may also be considered aflow diagram showing certain steps that may be performed according tothe principles of the invention. An item 105 having an item ID 120 at anoriginating location may be moved to a next location such as a firstlocation then to a second location, for example. A plurality of trackingdevices 110 a-c may provide address information to an address receptioncomponent 125, such as found in relation to radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) tags. The plurality of signals 115 a-ccommunicates respective address information for different locations,such as, for example, the IP address of the respective tracking device110 a-c. As shown, the originating location tracking device 105 may havean IP address, for example, “213.244.132.099.” The first locationtracking device 110 b may have an IP address, for example,“088.111.005.245.” The second location tracking device 110 c may have anIP address, for example, “110.222.129.089.” Each of the tracking devices110 may be configured to provide an address indicative of the respectivedifferent location (i.e., originating location, 1^(st) location, 2^(nd)location, etc.). When a system component such as the tracking devicesare configured to provided an address indicative of respective differentlocations, the system component may be, for example, a hardwarecomponent or may be a software component embedded within a computerplatform configured to provide an address indicative of a respectivelocation by communication techniques which may be accomplished bywireless techniques or by messaging such as found within computernetworks.

A processing component 130 may be provided on (or in) the item 105 (oreven external to the item in some applications) to process the receivedaddress information (e.g., the IP address of one or more trackingdevices 110 a-c) according to the location tracking compressionalgorithms described above. In some embodiments, the processingcomponent 130 may be separate from the item, such as on an externaldevice. The processing component 130 may be configured to recognize andaccount for different locations based on received addresses, and tocalculate aggregated tracking information. The resulting calculatedaggregated tracking information may be stored in a memory 135 of aparticular item.

By using the memory 135, a centralized database to capture trackinginformation may be minimized or avoided entirely, which for a largenumber of tracked items could be extensive. The processing component 130may include a decompressing software component 132 or routine todecompress aggregated tracking data, as described more below.Alternatively, the decompressing component 132 may be external to theitem 105, perhaps associated with reader 140.

When contrasted with a central database technique, the memory 135 may beviewed as a type of “distributed database” that is automaticallyscalable, or self-scaling. The “distributed database” may be related tothe number of items or objects being tracked, since each item or objectprovides its own memory.

The aggregated tracking data stored in the memory 135 of a particularitem may be subsequently read for decoding by an external computingdevice 140. The external computing device 140 may be a computer orserver that may be configured to disassemble the aggregated informationin a reverse manner. The external computing device 140 computes thesequence of locations that the item 105 traversed by decoding theaggregated tracking data. The external computing device may generate areport of the actual physical (or logical) locations traversed by theitem based on the decoded IP address(es) accumulated by the item 105.The resulting decoded IP address(es) may then be mapped to actualreal-world locations, if appropriate, based upon a mapping database (notshown) that identifies the physical locations or assignments (e.g., acompany name or person) for each IP address.

If the item 105 is an electronic item, such as, for example, a file, amessage, or a digital container having electronic content controlled bydigital rights management, the decoded mapping based on the aggregatedtracking information may be configured to produce other types ofinformation, such as, for example, logical points in a network, acountry, a translation instance from one type of protocol to anothersuch as found in gateway functionality, a firewall, a computer, or thelike.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram of an example of a process according to anembodiment of the invention, starting at step 200. The process mayemploy principles of the address compression methodology, as describedpreviously. FIG. 2, as well as all other flow diagrams herein, may alsobe a block diagram of the components for performing the steps thereof,including, but not limited to for example, hardware, software or anycombinations thereof. The components may be executed on an appropriatedcomputer medium, including, for example, a computer processing platform,an electronic circuit, or stored in a computer readable memory such as ahard drive, a ROM, a RAM, a CD or a DVD, or the like.

Continuing with FIG. 2, at step 205, a previously initialized countermay be incremented. This may be when a new or “first” location isrecognized related to movement of an item. At step 210 a first addressmay be stored in a memory for the first location. At step 215, a secondaddress may be paired with the first address, or a subset(s) of thefirst and the second addresses may be paired. At step 220, the firstaddress and the second address (or the subset(s)) may be reversiblycombined to produce a pseudonumber. The pseudonumber and counter may bestored. At step 225, the pseudonumber may be decoded using the counterto produce a history of addresses. The decoding may take place internalto a device aggregating the reversible combining the first and secondaddresses to produce the pseudonumber, or the decoding may take placeexternal to such a device, such as a separate computing platform.

The process may continue iteratively when a new (e.g., a third, afourth, etc.) location is recognized, and reversibly combining thepseudonumber with the new address to produce a new pseudonumber whichmay be decoded to produce a history of addresses.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of an example of a process of an embodiment ofthe invention, starting at step 300. The process may employ principlesof the address compression and decompression methodology, as describedpreviously. At step 305, an address for a first location (typically anoriginating location) may be stored along with a counter value having aninitial value, such as for example, zero (0). At step 310, a new/nextlocation may be recognized (e.g., using RFID technology). At step 315,the counter value may be incremented to count the new location. At step320, at least a subset of the previous (which may be the originatinglocation address or the aggregated address) location address may bereversibly combined with at least a subset of the address (e.g., asecond address) for the new/next recognized location to produce anaggregated address. At step 325, a check may be made whether or not arequest to produce an output has been made. If not, processing continuesat step 310 to process any new/next locations. However, if a request wasmade for an output, then at step 330, an output may be generated basedat least in part on the aggregated address. The output generation may beaccomplished onboard a device (e.g., device 105) performing the process(e.g., steps 305 to 310) or may be generated by transmitting theaggregated address and counter value to an external computer (e.g.,reader 140) for decompressing and generation of tracked locations. Thecounter value may also be used to decode the aggregated address toproduce a tracking history. At step 335, the process ends.

Although, the check at step 325 is shown as a serial operation, thecheck may be implemented as a parallel type process or an asynchronoustype process so that a request for an output might occur at any point inthe process.

The aggregated tracking information provides for a compressed storagetechnique to record a history of a plurality of addresses as comparedwith a technique that records addresses in an uncompressed format (i.e.,full operational addresses), such as might be done, for example, whenusing a common database. The aggregated tracking technique provides forreversibly encoding/decoding multiple addresses using a significantlyreduced amount of storage, as compared with other known techniques likea central database or other uncompressed storage techniques.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of an embodiment showing another process of theinvention, starting at step 400. The process may employ the principlesof the address compression techniques and associated decompressiontechniques, as described previously, such as the description inreference to FIG. 1, and related algorithms, for example. At step 405,an address indicative of a first location may be received and stored bya device configured to track location history in a compressed manner,according to principles of the invention described previously. A countermay be initialized and stored in a memory (or a database). At step 410,an address indicative of a next location may be received and recognized.This may be achieved, for example, by way of a received communicationfrom a sending device or other input at the next location, such as foundwhen using RFID technology, for example. At step 415, the counter may beincremented to record the recognized next location.

At step 420, at least a subset of the stored address (which may be theaddress associated with the first location, or a compressed addressrepresented by a pseudonumber of a plurality of recognized addresses)may be reversibly combined with at least a subset of the recognized nextaddress to produce a new pseudonumber, which may be stored. At step 425,a check is made whether or not a request has been made to produce anoutput. If no request has been made, then the process may continue atstep 410. However, if a request is made to generate an output, which mayinclude a request to reverse (decode) the compressed addressesrepresented by the pseudonumber, at step 430, output may be generatedbased at least in part on the pseudonumber; alternatively, thepseudonumber, counter and optionally other information such as thedevice ID may be transmitted to another computing device for furtherprocessing. The external device may reversibly decode the pseudonumberusing the received information to produce a tracking history of thetracking device, and optionally provide mapping information based on theresulting decoded addresses to produce other physical map informationsuch as city or other identifying location information. Reversing thecombining process using the pseudonumber and the counter results in atracking history of the addresses accumulated during the combiningsequences. At step 435, the process stops.

The check for the request for output (i.e., step 425) is illustrativelyshown as a sequential check; however, this check may be performed inparallel or performed asynchronously, and could occur anytime in theprocess with subsequent output being generated. This may occur, forexample, when a tracked item reaches some terminal or interim locationresponsible for acquiring the tracking history as stored.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram of an embodiment showing steps of anotherprocess of the invention, starting at step 500. At step 505, aggregatedtracking data or pseudonumber and other data such as a counter value andoptionally a device identifier may be received at a computing platformfrom a tracking device configured to track traversed locations using acompressed address technique described herein. The communicationtechnology to convey this information from the device to the computingplatform may be any one of a number of technologies that may be suitablefor the tracking device, but a preferred technology is RFID technology.Although this communication may occur at any convenient time andlocation, it might occur whenever the tracking device has reached apre-determined destination that may be designated and configured toreceive and decode the compressed tracked addresses within the trackingdevice. At step 510, the aggregated tracking data or pseudonumber may bereversibly decoded to produce a sequence of actual addresses (indicativeof traversed locations) received and stored by the tracking device. Atstep 515, a tracking history may be generated based on the decodedactual addresses and might include a mapping to actual physicaldesignations such as geographical locations and the like. At step 520,the process exits.

While the method and system described above referred to the tracking ofan item or object, such as a physical package or item, it should beclear that the invention may also track electronic data items acrosscommunication mediums, such as the Internet. For example, every time adigital audio file is played, it may store the IP address of the currentcomputer, according to the above system and method. This may allow theadministrator of a dynamic digital rights management (DRM) scheme totrack the use of and/or forwarding of (from one computer to another)individual files (or even messages) across the Internet. Also, as the IPaddress of a personal computer may change frequently (due to, e.g.,“dynamic” IP addressing), a DRM scheme using the invention may beexpanded to also record the date and time at which the file was played.

While the invention has been described in terms of exemplaryembodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the inventioncan be practiced with modifications in the spirit and scope of theappended claims. These examples given above are merely illustrative andare not meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible designs,embodiments, applications or modifications of the invention.

It should also be noted that the software implementations of theinvention as described herein are optionally stored on a tangiblestorage medium, such as: a magnetic medium such as a disk or tape; amagneto-optical or optical medium such as a disk; or a solid statemedium such as a memory card or other package that houses one or moreread-only (non-volatile) memories, random access memories, or otherre-writable (volatile) memories. A digital file attachment to email orother self-contained information archive or set of archives isconsidered a distribution medium equivalent to a tangible storagemedium. Accordingly, the invention is considered to include a tangiblestorage medium or distribution medium, as listed herein and includingart-recognized equivalents and successor media, in which the softwareimplementations herein are stored.

According to an aspect of the invention, a computer program may beprovided on a computer readable medium that comprises a plurality ofcode sections for carrying out the process shown in FIG. 2. Inparticular, a computer program may be provided that includes a codesection for carrying out each of the steps 200-230.

1-29. (canceled)
 30. A method of tracking an object, comprising thesteps of: receiving aggregated tracking data at a device, wherein theaggregated tracking data includes at least a pseudonumber and a counter,the pseudonumber representing reversibly combined plurality of addressesand the counter indicating a number of reversibly combined plurality ofaddresses; and decoding the pseudonumber at the device using the counterto produce an output of each of the plurality of addresses that waspreviously reversibly combined thereby providing a tracking history ofaddresses that an object traversed.
 31. The method of claim 30, whereinthe decoding step decodes the pseudonumber to produce a plurality ofaddresses representing logical or physical addresses.
 32. The method ofclaim 30, wherein the decoding step decodes the pseudonumber to producean Internet Protocol (IP) address or a media access control (MAC)address.
 33. The method of claim 30, wherein the decoding step decodesthe pseudonumber to produce a global positioning system (GPS) coordinateor a longitude-latitude coordinate.
 34. The method of claim 30, whereinin the decoding step the counter controls the decoding sequence of thereversibly combined plurality of addresses.
 35. The method of claim 30,wherein the receiving step receives the aggregated tracking data using aradio frequency identification (RFID) technology.
 36. The method ofclaim 30, wherein the step of receiving aggregated tracking data at adevice receives the aggregated tracking data at a computer system.
 37. Asystem that includes the method of claim
 30. 38. A digital rightsmanagement system that includes the method of claim
 30. 39. The methodof claim 30, wherein the step of receiving aggregate tracking dataincludes receiving an identification (ID) of an object for which thepseudonumber and counter are associated.
 40. A method for trackingmovement of an object, the method comprising: a) storing in a memory anaddress identifying a first location of an object and initializing acounter; b) recognizing an address identifying a second location thatthe object is present and counting the second location using thecounter; c) reversibly combining at least a subset of the addressidentifying the first location and at least a subset of the addressidentifying the second location to produce a aggregated address in thememory; d) recognizing an address identifying any subsequent locationthat the object is present and counting the any subsequent locationusing the counter; e) reversibly combining the aggregated address and atleast a subset of the address identifying the any subsequent location toupdate the aggregated address so that the aggregated address representsin a reversibly compressed format all addresses of all locations theobject has been present; and f) repeating steps d) and e) for anysubsequent location thereby tracking movement of the object bypermitting disentanglement of the aggregated address to provide anidentity of every location the object has been present.
 41. The methodof claim 40, wherein the aggregated address comprises a pseudonumber.42. The method of claim 40, wherein the reversibly compressed formatencodes at least a pair of addresses, each address representing adifferent address.
 43. The method of claim 40, wherein any address is anInternet Protocol (IP) address or a media access control (MAC) address.44. The method of claim 40, wherein any address represents a globalpositioning system (GPS) coordinate or a longitude-latitude coordinate.45. The method of claim 40, wherein any step of recognizing an addressincludes recognizing a respective address conveyed by radio frequencyidentification (RFID) technology.
 46. The method of claim 40, whereinthe storing step further stores an identification (ID) of the object.47. The method of claim 40, wherein the object is a physical object. 48.The method of claim 47, wherein the memory is associated with thephysical object.
 49. The method of claim 40, wherein the object is anelectronic data object.
 50. A system that includes the method of claim40.
 51. A digital rights management system that includes the method ofclaim
 40. 52. The method of claim 40, further comprising the step ofgenerating an output based on the aggregated address and the counter bydisentangling the aggregated address to provide an identity of everylocation for tracking the movement of the object.